Tonnes of potentially deadly and explosive gas poured out of a refinery at the Lindsey Oil Refinery at Killingholme in a major safety breach, it has been revealed.

Now Total LOR has been fined £400,000 after admitting a breach of Health and Safety laws following the incident.

In his findings at Grimsby Magistrates Court, a judge said he wanted the fine to have "a real economic impact" on the company to show how serious the breach was.

In June 2015 Total UK was fined £1.4million following the death of Grimsby sub-contractor Robert Greenacre, 24, when a blaze broke out at the same North Killingholme refinery in 2010.

The latest prosecution was brought by the Health and Safety Executive against Total LOR which has a turnover of £2billion and posted a profit in 2016 of £122million.

Lindsey Oil Refinery pictured at night. (Image: Jon Corken)

Court papers show about 50 tonnes of butane gas, which is highly flammable and asphyxiating, escaped from the Killingholme refinery on March 26 2015.

In normal operating mode the refinery processes some 220,000 barrels of oil a day, in addition to over 500 employees there is regularly a significant number of contractors on site.

On the day of the leak the company was carrying out planned maintenance and inspections. In February 2015 there was a shutdown of all operating equipment and process units within one of the three operational zones known as turnaround and inspection.

These are planned every four years. At the height of the inspection there were approximately 1,200 contract workers on site in addition to TLORs employees.

Pipework was shutdown, along with vents and drains.

The judge heard one of the many planned tasks was the connection or “tying in” of a new section of pipework providing an additional link between two operating units. The pipeline was one kilometre long and outside the battery limits for either plant.

Part of the Lindsey Oil Refinery at Killingholme

The HSE inspectors found neither unit was responsible for it and as a consequence it fell outside the detailed procedure and checklist that existed.

A report to the court said: “As a consequence when the line came to be commissioned its integrity was assumed to have been checked, there should have been a “squeeze test” for line tightness this would have revealed if vents were open. The documented procedure covering this process (SO-ALL-GEN-025 joint Integrity checks by Nitrogen Pressurisation”) was simply not in place for this aspect. Accordingly a high point vent at 40 ft height remained open and unnoticed.

“By 3am on March 26 the pumps were running properly and butane gas was pushed through the system to the MTBE plant, neither unit identified any cause for concern that might have indicated gas was being released through an open vent.”

The release was identified at 6.45am as operators arrived on site. By 6.50am the incident controller had stopped the LPG pumps and managed the establishment of a water curtain to “knock down” or control the release, by 7.36am after pumping had stopped and the unit was safety isolated.

The vent was isolated. The affected area was covered in foam to prevent any residual risk of ignition and a sterile exclusion area cordoned off.

The leak was dealt with by the site’s own staff and emergency services were not needed.

A total of 50 tonnes of butane gas leaked from a high point vent over a period of nearly four hours. Butane is highly-flammable and used to maximise the octane of petrol.

Although there had been no injuries or health issues the incident was classified as a high potential incident.

The 2010 explosion and fire at Lindsey Oil Refinery

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The firm admitted the level of culpability was “medium.”

In 2015 Total Oil UK Limited was convicted of a similar offence, tragically on that occasion, involving the death of a sub-contractor Robert Greenacre who died following the uncontrolled release of crude oil on June 26, 2010.

In 2012 Total Oil UK Ltd transferred its UK refining business to its subsidiary Total Lindsey Oil Refinery. LOR is a group company of Total SA the ultimate parent company.

The firm said there are nine separate areas of health and safety action, seven of which it went over and above the HSE recommendations.

District Judge Daniel Curtis

In his findings Judge Daniel Curtis said: “There is no suggestion that safety is or was generally disregarded by the defendant.

“The offence did not arise following the defendant’s disregard of warnings from regulatory authorities; nor is it the case where safety has been deliberately sacrificed for profit or where there has been a deliberate flouting of the law.

“It was apparent that TLOR had taken countless safety precautions in addition to its detailed planning.”

He said there was a very high level of cooperation with the HSE investigation, prompt self-reporting at 10 am on the day of the incident.

Last year TLOR completed 2.3 million hours of work without a single recordable safety incident. That was the best safety performance achieved at the refinery in a 20 year period, the judge heard.

In 2014 TLOR was identified “as the most proactive refinery in the UK refining sector.”

The court heard TLOR posted a lower pre-tax loss of £19.2 million in 2015.

Profits have been impacted upon by the collapse in the value of oil from an average of $108.56 in 2013 to $43.55 per barrel in 2016.

Judge Curtis said: “I am of the view that the fine to be imposed of £400,000 is sufficiently substantial to have a real economic impact which will bring home to both management and shareholders the need to comply with health and safety legislation."

He also ordered the firm to pay costs of over £15,000 for the breach of safety regulations in March 2015.

The company had pleaded guilty on February 1 to a breach of a part of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in relation to its control of major hazard regulations.

A spokeswoman for Total Lindsey oil Refinery said: "The release did not cause any harm but we accept entirely that it should not have occurred.

"The safety of our employees and contractors is paramount to us at all times. We have worked closely with the Health & Safety Executive throughout the investigation and have fully cooperated to provide all the necessary details. We have worked closely with the HSE in order to learn as much as possible from this incident and will share our experience within the industry.

"The Safety of our employees and contractors is paramount to us at all times. We remain committed to continuously review and improve our Safety, Health and Environmental risk management practices and procedures across the whole of our operations."